We are the Eponines and Eowyns of the worldThe closet romanticsthe strong oneswho cannot live in a boxWe are the cold untouchableswho gaze through icy windows and long for a hand to holdWe must fightand fight aloneWe are confidentand that is too often seen as dismissalWe walk abandoned streets on rainy nightsforsaken hill lands on gray windy daysIn solitude is our peacea peace that is our companion even on the raging battlefielda peace that runs in tears on pale cheeksas a quiet mountain spring hidden from the world’s view

We are the wanderesses who know that love is not found in securitywho refuse to sacrifice all that we are for some fantasyWe would rather walk these paths honestlywhether or not another’s feet shall tread besidethan forsake the path entirely to be eclipsed in the footprints of anotherWe ask not for your protectionnor validationWe do not need you to complete usneither shall we complete youBut we promise something greaterTo stay because we choosenot because we are boundTo love fullyfrom a heart whole in itself

But here we standforever doomedto watch from afar as others are chosenAs those for whom we would have given the worldwho we thought were courageoustake the safe routeforsake their passion and vigorfor the predictable decline of slow deaththe numbing comfort of acquiescenceYet somehow we love them stillCollecting heartscars like battle-woundseach pang a story that no ears shall heara world of joy and pain that we must relive daily

We care too muchRaging idealistsWilling to die for what we loveWe are too muchRaging wildfiresScaring away those who cannot bear the heatPerhaps it is for the bestbut beneath our tough exteriora wounded heart bleeds afresh with rejectionPerhaps if we were broken and helplesswe could find some semblance of loveenough to dull the ache of the comatose role they demand of us

But noWe are wholeEnoughStrongWe are aliveand will not choose the ease of death

We are she whom you cannot ignoreShe who shatters the fragile fantasyin which you have barricaded yourselfShe who belongs to no one